Titanus
by Omnisaurus
Summary: Before mankind rose to power, there existed creatures of great power. Monsters. Gods in mortal flesh. But as the ages went on and the monsters went into hiding, humanity slowly forgot about them and believed them to be nothing but myth. Until now. When a boy named Ben Tennyson is transformed into one of these creatures, the world is once again reminded of how small we truly are.


'_**Before there was time**_

_**Before there was anything**_

_**There was nothing.**_

_**And before there was nothing**_

_**There were monsters.' -The Lich**_

* * *

'_Run. Hide. Defend yourself.'_

Those three instincts kept on repeating themselves a million times in my head as I frantically tried to get away from those pursuing me. My limbs ached from overuse and my lungs burned from fleeing too much, but I ignored the protests of my body to continue my efforts to distance myself from… SHIT!

Hearing the incoming rumble of a missile closing in, I swerved to the side. The missile shot past me and continued heading straight forward a couple hundred meters before exploding in midair. I turned my head to see my pursuers: thirteen fighter jets, all of them gray and yellow in color, speeding towards me with hostile intent.

So far, they hadn't been able to hurt me; the skin of my new body apparently was too thick for the bullets they shot from their machine guns to penetrate. I didn't want to push my luck and test my body's durability with missiles.

I briefly glanced up towards the sky above me, catching sight of clouds much higher in the atmosphere and the moon. The stars twinkled like shards of gem or glass in the night sky. The sight reminded me of the world: beautiful but uncaring towards my struggles, fears or hardships. Simply observing.

'_Snap out of it Ben!'_ I thought to myself, shaking my head to clear my thoughts. '_Since when did you ever care about philosophy?'_

Another rumble, another missile, another dodge.

'_Go away!'_ both I and my instincts mentally screamed at them. '_Leave me alone weaklings!'_

I tilted my head in confusion as I processed my last thought. Why had I called them weaklings? Were my instincts just that prominent in my new body? I guess that would explain it; compared to my new body, jets would seem weak in comparison.

Still wasn't going to let a missile hit me to see if I was resistant though.

I frantically tilted out of the way of another missile, losing my balance as I did so. A panicked shriek escaped from my mouth as I began plummeting to the ground, the fighter jets following closely, like piranhas to a drowning animal.

Fear shot through me as I quickly fell through the clouds. I struggled to right myself, but another missile firing at me forced me to flail out of the way in a panic. The jets were unrelenting, shooting at me whenever I attempted to stop my fall. The message was clear: either you die from this or we kill you ourselves.

Was this it? Was this how I was going to die; either shot down by my pursuers while fleeing for my life or falling to my death?

_..._

_No._

_I refuse._

A burst of courage made itself known to me, drowning away any fear I previously had. I gave the jets the best glare I could muster before glancing down. Although I couldn't make out any of the features of the terrain I was falling towards, I could easily see that I was plummeting towards a very large cloud. Yes, that would do.

Sparring one final glare to the jets, I fell into the cloud. The jets flew around the cloud so as to avoid having their visibility decreased while my own vision became blocked out by a fluffy white expanse.

'_Good.'_ the instincts said once I was hidden within. Ignoring them for the moment, I fought against the forces of gravity and quickly reclaimed my balance once more. With my balance now restored, I wanted to put some distance between me and these annoying pursuers.

Going up wasn't an option: some jets could still be waiting for me above the cloud, waiting to shoot me down. Landing wasn't an option either: despite how fast I may be on land because of my long limbs, I would be significantly slower than I would be flying.

So going up or down was no good, but what about going down _then_ up?

I gave it some thought: going down would give me enough momentum for a rapid ascension, allowing me to shoot up and above the jets with little risk. No downsides immediately came to mind, so I figured that that was the best course of action.

With a new plan in mind, I tucked my wings and turned my face towards the earth. I instantly began plummeting towards the ground at a much faster but controlled rate. Now that I got closer, I was able to see the environment I was falling towards; an expanse of green, grassy hills with nothing else in sight, be it natural or man-made.

'_Perfect.'_ my instincts seemed to tell me. For what, I wasn't sure but I didn't question it; the instincts I've gained with my transformation hadn't led me astray so far.

The hills grew closer and closer while the distance between me and the pursuing jets slowly increased. The wind buffeted my face as I noticed the ground grow closer & closer. I felt my left foot (if it could even be called that anymore) grow tingly as it began glowing the same shade of orange that my eyes were.

'_Slam it!'_ my instincts whispered once more, now more demanding than they had been previously. '_Weaken them.'_

I was all too happy to oblige.

The ground was getting close now, very close. Folding in my wings even more, I sped up my descent by the tiniest of margins. I noticed small impacts throughout my body that would briefly become comfortably warm before disappearing. Turning my head a little, I managed to just see the last remnants of a fire flicker out of existence from my unmarked body.

'_Wait…'_ I thought, turning my head back to the earth. '_Missiles don't hurt me at all!?'_

I had no time to ponder the implications of my newfound heat resistance; the earth was getting close.

Unfolding my wings as I finally got close enough to the ground, I slowed my descent. Acting upon my earlier instincts, I released an ungodly crackle and slammed my glowing pseudo-claw into the space between two hills, both of which only came up halfway to my knees. As I did so, I began strongly beating my wings to become airborne again; giving your enemies the higher ground was always a tactical disadvantage.

A shockwave emanated from my pseudo-claw, spreading across everything in sight. I beat my wings hard, regaining the altitude I had lost with vigor. I sparred a glance towards my pursuers, who were still diving towards the earth. For a moment, nothing happened. Then I noticed that the jets had made no move to chase after me; they just continued to hurtle towards the earth. It looked like their jets had stopped working.

I maneuvered my body around and hovered in midair, curiously watching and waiting for the pilots to eject from their seats.

But they never did.

Every jet crashed into the earth in a fiery conflagration of heat and machinery which illuminated the land they touched down upon. My curiosity quickly morphed into horror as I watched the jets drop, one by one, like flies.

Why were they not ejecting?! Why have they not ejected?! Was there a malfunction within their jets or were they just not equipped with ejectable seats? Why hadn't they tried to open their cockpits after their aircraft was disabled by-

The realization hit me like a train. Nothing had been wrong with their jets; they probably _did_ have ejectable seats. At least until my pulse had disabled them.

I glanced downwards at my long, spindly limbs in a mixture of fear and apprehension. That wave I had released had just released was probably some sort of EMP wave, which would explain why the jets had stopped working; their circuitry had been fried.

I dread to think what could happen if I used this in a city; electricity would stop flowing to homes & hospitals, vehicles would crash and all communication to the outside world would be cut off. Mass panic and injury, possibly death as well, would follow. It was quite possible that I would never be able to go back to any sort of civilization ever again.

'_Threats are dead.'_ my instincts told me. '_Safe now.'_

I wanted to scream at my instincts that no, we weren't safe and that we were horrible for having killed those men who were probably just following orders from their higher ups! I wanted to yell at my instincts that if we had simply chosen to keep running, those men would still be alive right now! But I didn't.

My instincts weren't an actual person or thing I could yell out, just small suggestions that came whispering from the back of my mind. And even if they were real, I doubt that they would care or even understand the morality issue about what we had done. They would likely just say "we killed the attacker" or "it was self-defense" or something along those lines.

I remained in the air for another moment, internally debating about whether I should touch down and search for survivors or continue on my way while the getting was good. Another moment passed before my morals won over and I descended to search through the remains of what had once been aircraft.

Touching down in the space between two jets with my spindly limbs, towering over everything within sight. Looking down, I caught sight of my pseudo-clawed front legs and began my short trek to the nearest jet, which was the one to the left. As I walked, I felt my back legs rise from the ground before touching down again. From what I could feel, I appeared to have cloven hooves instead of a pseudo-claw on my back legs.

Once I reached the jet, I leaned down closely to inspect the conflagration that was now beginning to spread to the nearby grass. I wanted to prevent a wildfire from starting but I couldn't stomp out the source of the fire until I was sure that the pilot was no longer living. I hurriedly peered into the downed jet, silently praying that they had made it.

…

…

…

No survivors. Next jet.

Quickly raising my front left leg and bringing it down, I was rewarded by the sound of crunching and bending metal. Thankfully, I wasn't able to hear the sound of the body within being crushed. Lifting my leg off of the destroyed jet, I stared down at the heap of scrap heap and blackened earth that was my handiwork.

What came after was a blur of my repeating the same process: walk to the nearest jet, see if the pilot was still alive, see that they weren't and stomp on the jet to ensure that a wildfire didn't start. It wasn't until the ninth jet that I caught sight of a survivor. Under different circumstances, I would have been relieved.

But that was under different circumstances.

The still-living man was trapped inside of his jet, the fire having already reached him. Because of that, I couldn't make out any features due to the fire having burnt them away. His hair, nose and ears were all gone, his skin was charred black and molten metal clung to his body. The man was screaming in absolute agony; screaming that would most likely haunt me for the rest of my life.

I reared back in shock and horror, releasing a series of disturbed crackles as I did so. The man appeared to not notice, merely continuing to yell and scream as his life was burnt out of him. A thousand thoughts rushed through my head, telling me to do something, anything, to save him before my instincts flared up once more.

'_Too late for him. Already dead. Kindest thing we can do is end his suffering.'_

My mouth opened and I gave out an angered crackle at my instincts. '_Shut up! You were the cause of this! I can still save him!'_

'_Fire is a painful way to die. If the fire was put out now, the death would be even more drawn out and painful. Kindest thing we can do is end his suffering.'_

An irritated rumble emanated from my chest, but I didn't respond to the instincts. Somewhere inside of me, I knew that they were right: this man's time alive was limited and doing nothing/saving him from the fire would only make his pain last longer before death.

Solemnly glancing down at the man and his jet, I raised one of my front legs over the burning vehicle. Quickly looking away, I brought it down. The screaming stopped, drowned out by the bending of metal. I felt the fire beneath my leg become suffocated and die, sharing the same fate as the man who had previously been my pursuer.

Taking my foot off, I stared blankly into the dark horizon before something shiny got my attention. Glancing down, I found out what it was that had caught my eye.

A knight's helmet. The attire of one of my pursuers which was now staring at me incriminatingly, as if blaming me for what had happened to the one who had once worn it.

I wanted to laugh at the incredulity of it all: I had been transformed, gotten a voice in my head which I assumed were my instincts and had been chased by knights driving fighter jets. But I couldn't. I couldn't laugh. All I could do was just reflect on what I had just done.

I felt no pain. No horror or dread at my actions, no inner turmoil or anguish about the act I had just committed. I just felt empty.

I had just killed someone. And it wasn't accidental like it had been when I had caused the EMP wave or me accidentally stepping on somebody. It had been intentional. I didn't bother thinking about the facts that man had been trying to kill me and that I had mercy killed him. All that mattered was that I had just killed a man on purpose. I was now a murderer.

What came next I don't remember. I think I may have stomped out the rest of the jets and flown a few miles away but I don't remember. The next thing I remember was that I now sitting down beside a lake, it's water glimmering like liquid silver because of the moonlight shining upon it.

I glanced at the moon. The beautiful, uncaring moon.

'_It's not fair.'_ I wanted to say. '_Why did this have to happen to me? What did I do to deserve this?'_

But I didn't. There was nobody around to care. The moon and stars wouldn't care, the lake wouldn't care, the grass and hills wouldn't care and the ground beneath me wouldn't care. The world didn't care about my suffering.

My thoughts traveled back to my family: my parents, my cousin Gwen and her boyfriend/my best friend Kevin, my Grandpa Max and girlfriend Julie with the pet terrier, who I had gotten for her birthday, Ship. I would most likely never be able to see any of them again. Heck, I didn't even know if Grandpa Max was still alive!

An angered cackle escaped my mouth as I ran up to the lake and slammed my left pseudo-claw into it in said anger. A series of small waves emanated from where I had plunged my leg into the water and traveled a good distance away from me before they faded from existence.

The anger faded away just as quickly as it came, left me feeling empty again. I stared down at the water, looking at my reflection.

My skin was now metallic grayish-black with an iridescent sheen to it. The body was nimble, despite being so large, and a pair of much smaller forelimbs stuck out from my chest. A pair of long, pointed, membranous wings stuck out from my back. My face now sported a hooked beak and my eyes were now narrowly-shaped & compound like an insect's.

I hadn't had time to see what I looked like until now. The emptiness retreated yet again as a new emotion began to fill me: anguish. My life had been taken away from me in less than a moment, forcing me to run. I would never see my home, my friends, my family ever again.

Turning my head towards the moon, I let loose a sorrowful crackle. It was a mournful sound, the noise of a man who had lost everything.

No. I couldn't call myself a man anymore.

I was a monster.

* * *

**Author's Afternotes**

**MERRY FUCKING EARLY CHRISTMAS ANIMEGOJI91 BECAUSE IT'S FINALLY HERE! Behold, the first chapter of my Ben 10/MonsterVerse crossover… well, more like MonsterVerse plus a few other media that have relatively realistic kaiju.**

**Don't ask for Shin Godzilla, Cloverfield, Pacific Rim or any of the Godzilla anime kaiju to appear though. The kaiju skin mites from Pacific Rim may make an appearance, but I promise nothing.**

**I would also like to thank Prime Arachnimus for some ideas he gave back in June, which I have decided to implement into this story.**

**I know that male Jinshin-Mushi (or MUTOs as they are more commonly referred to as) can activate their EMP blasts midair, but I didn't figure that out until I was almost done writing this chapter. Oops.**

**Now, people are probably wondering what I've been up to for the last few months and why I haven't updated my other stories. In short: college and I am unsatisfied with how the latest chapter of Shapeshifter of Kuoh keeps ending up. Aside from that though, I have recently been co-writing with another author by the name of on his own Ben 10 crossover.**

**If you guys want to see the latest fruit of my labors, go read Zero's Ben by Mr. Sensei (one word, no space). I helped him write chapter 4 & 5 and any support you guys give him is technically support for me as well. Oh, and tell him Omni sent you.**

**Also, just letting you guys know, the Jinshin-Mushi/MUTO form is going to be called Paraflight. Just thought you should know.**


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